Motion capture data on custom rigs

[kees]

absolutely.

I don't know of any 'out of the box' solutions, so you'll have to dig in and write some scripts yourself, but I've done it a few times (BVH, CSM and AMC/ASF) and it's not that difficult (a few days of pain to be expected though)

good luck,

-Kees

[Boa]

FBX export could be worth a try: Apply the motion capture data to a biped first, export that with animation as FBX and merge the animation onto your custom rig.

Andrea

[RampanT]

Thanks for the replies.

Kees - Yeah, this would be a good solution. The only problem being that my Maxscript knowledge is very very minimal. Do you have any info on the nature of how the script would work?

Andrea - The FBX export would be great if it works. I tried a couple of quick tests, and I did get the animation into the scene, but I'm not sure how to apply the animation onto my rig. Have you done this before? Or have an idea of how you could get the animation specifically onto the rig?

Thanks again.

[Boa]

I did a test with the FBX workflow which worked. But I haven't used it in production/"real" world environement.

For this to work the Biped should match your custom rig. In general animation merging is done with the Merge Animation dialog (File/Merge Animation).

For my test I used an FBX export of the a non-animated version of the Biped instead of a custom rig. That way I was sure that both rigs match. Here are the steps:

Motion capture data via FBX to custom rig
-----------------------------------------

1. Import the mop cap data to the Biped.

2. Export as FBX. (I selected all options.)

3. New File. Import the just exported animated FBX file. (Again I choosed all options, marked "Take 1" for the animation.) Save this file.

4. Open your custom rig file (I opened a new and imported the non-animated FBX file). Go to File/Merge Animation. Choose the justed saved max file with the animation in it as source. Now look at the Object Mapping part. In my case there was obviously a perfect match and I could use the right pointing arrow and all mapping was done. In other cases you may have to do some mapping "by hand". When mapping is done click the Merge Animation button. Done.

Hope that helps,
Andrea

P.S. FBX seems to be picky about the units used and the size of your objects. First test I did with "meters". FBX bones came out really weird - way to big. But the animation was there and played correctly. In a test with units set to Generic the bones looked normal.

[RampanT]

Thanks for that Andrea.

I think the problem i have is that my rig doesn't match the biped rig exactly. I was hoping there was maybe a way to set up reference markers or something similar, where I could associate certain bones of my rig, with corresponding bones on the biped rig, and then inherit the mo cap data.

I'm not sure this is really feasible. But thanks for the mini-tut all the same.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.